Born to Be follows the work of Dr. Jess Ting, a plastic surgeon at the groundbreaking Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery in New York City-where, for the first time ever, all transgender and non-binary people have access to quality gender affirming health and surgical care.
CTMS is Mount Sinai’s large, interdisciplinary transgender health program that includes adolescent health, adult primary care, hormone treatment, mental health support, and the surgical programs where Dr. Ting has played such a pivotal role with his innovative approaches.
With extraordinary access, this feature-length documentary takes an intimate look at how one doctor’s work impacts the lives of his patients as well as how his journey from renowned plastic surgeon to pioneering gender-affirming surgeon has led to his own transformation.
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Born to Be gives voice to those who refuse to conform to gender norms and stereotypes. The film addresses the nuances and complexities of gender, exploring key issues around the breadth of gender identity and expression among human beings.
Through the gender affirming surgeries of Dr. Ting’s patients, we witness the joys and torments that come with this brand-new territory-even as we see the limitations of Dr. Ting’s renowned surgical skills, and his commitment to his new field being tested.
The extraordinary doc which Variety’s Owen Gleiberman calls, “Moving and fascinatingly forward-looking,” opens at the Gene Siskel Center on November 20.
